


Paradox

by JustAnotherGhostwriter



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Bromance, Bruce and Tony have a half-talk about the arc reactor, Gen, No slash here (goggles may be worn), Science Bros, Tony has a messed up view on questions and who may ask them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 11:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/710301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherGhostwriter/pseuds/JustAnotherGhostwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A glitch in the temperature system in Stark Tower has Bruce next to a lethargic - and thus uncharacteristically still and quiet - Tony. Of course, the quiet moments are usually what lead to the biggest revelations and the two scientists have a short talk about the Arc Reactor and Tony's view on their friendship. Science Bro friendship fluff and a very patient Bruce Banner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradox

**Author's Note:**

> Creative License: Use, reblog on Tumblr/LJ/etc, edit, destroy etc as you will. I don’t care. Just if it is used for fic or art in some way please consider linking me? I love reading/looking.
> 
> This is a very small concept. I can’t say drabble because I’m incapable of writing those. Let’s call it a scene. A scene out of a larger oneshot/multi chap that I have not written and will not write (see above for creative license, oh brilliant writer reading this). I’m going to tell myself that in a larger context of this non-existent fic this would all make sense and will be better resolved. Just so I don’t feel like a worthless writer. In other news, this has been plaguing me for months. (Also, first Avengers fic. I will be butchering the fandom a lot more from now on.)

It was _hot_. Bruce was used to heat – stuffy, humid, suffocating heat that came par for the course when you lived in India. But India had been long enough ago that he’d forgotten how hot hot could be. And, besides, this was another sort of hot altogether. India was a natural sort of hot – there was no other way to describe it – and after being there he could feel that this was artificial.

 

For a while he’d just continued working, letting the quickly accumulating sweat drip down him and stick his clothes to him even though he’d long ago rolled up his sleeves and rid his feet of shoes and socks. The temperature kept rising, though; rising and rising until he could barely think with the artificial suppression that was hanging all around him.

 

It made him nervous – more nervous than lethargic. Heat made people irritable. Him irritable was not something that should be allowed to happen. Ever. Especially not when he was currently in the middle of New York, in a tower that was definitely not his, with very expensive, breakable things and very expensive, even more breakable people. (Tony has the suit Tony has the suit Tony has the suit it’s fine he has the suit Tony has the suit…)

 

Giving up trying to ignore the problem – his glasses wouldn’t even stay on his nose it was so sweat-slicked by this stage – he voiced a calm query to the ceiling. JARVIS didn’t answer. Bruce’s nervousness shot up about seven notches.

 

Which was why he found himself heading down towards Tony’s lab, which was usually blearing with music and occasional swearing and the bantering between man and very advanced machine. Today, it was free from all that but filled instead with a disconcerting humming. It didn’t help much when Bruce keyed himself in to find Tony sprawled over his floor.

 

Before he could even think to panic even a little, Tony’s muffled voice filled the air, joining with the humming in a strange sort of harmony.

 

“Something went wrong with J’s internal temperature gauge.”

 

“I feel so,” Bruce replied mildly, feeling even more lethargic as the surge of pure relief washed over him. Forget causing the Other Guy to make an appearance, Tony was going to give him a freaking heart attack. “Is there a reason you’re starfished on your floor?”

 

“’S cold,” came the muffled answer.

 

Bruce didn’t question how that worked. Instead, he slouched over to Tony’s side and joined him on the blissfully cool floor of the workshop. Neither of them spoke, too hot and bothered to try anything as taxing as pointless conversation. Finally, however, Bruce’s scientific mind couldn’t ignore the questions.

 

“I’m assuming JARVIS is fixing himself? Or are you lying here and waiting for a miracle to descend from heaven?”

 

“First one; triple breasted women only descend upon us in the year three thousand.”

 

“He’s the one that’s humming?” Bruce wondered when he’d started referring to JARVIS as ‘he’. It should concern him that everybody in this tower treated the AI as though he were an omnipresent, invisible, brilliant human being. It didn’t. “Cooling fans?”

 

“Mmm.”

 

Silence descended once more and Bruce realized that this was the quietest and the stillest he’d ever seen Tony Stark. Except that time when they’d been surprised and Tony hadn’t been able to get to the suit in time and the concussion… But he wasn’t going to think about that.

 

The humming grew on him, becoming a pleasant melody as the time passed. He’d taken off his glasses and rolled up his pants, staying on his back while Tony continued to lie on his stomach with his face pressed into the floor. Bruce was glad the billionaire trusted the sanitation of his floor that much; _he_ personally did not. After a while, his eyes closed and the heat stopped seeming to matter quite as much. Dozing with only the humming as sound, he couldn’t help but start as Tony suddenly moved beside him.

 

The billionaire was swearing and angrily pulling off his long-sleeved Tshirt which had to that point been rolled up at the sleeves as much as humanly possible. Bruce didn’t blame him for the action at all, but something still niggled as his companion wrestled out of the slick fabric, scowling darkly. As the offending item of cloth was cast roughly aside, Bruce realized where his discomfort stemmed from. He’d been staying in Stark Tower for ages, but never once had he seen Tony shirtless. Even when he’d just been woken up, Stark had had a shirt on. And Bruce had subconsciously thought it a rule: shirts were kept on inside the Tower. Like it was a fancy restaurant. It was why he hadn’t removed his own collared shirt ages ago, even though it was close to the point of boiling him alive. It was the unspoken rule of the Tower, and Tony was breaking it as though it didn’t exist. This put Bruce off.

 

And then Tony flipped himself over and lay down on his back and Bruce realized _why_ the silent rule had been in place.

 

Oh, gods of the universe.

 

He’d known from the beginning, before he’d even met Tony, that the Arc Reactor was imbedded in Stark’s chest. It was just a thing; Tony Stark had an Arc Reactor in his body. He’d never stopped to think what that _really_ meant. He’d never stopped to consider what it would look like, having a metal thing _inserted directly into your chest_. Bruce had read, had heard, had thought he’d understood. But he hadn’t. Not until he was actually seeing it, actually finding the place that flesh stopped and metal began. Right in the middle of his chest. As though somebody had placed a sticker there as a prank and Tony simply hadn’t taken it off. Except it wasn’t flat; he could see the slight rise and knew what that meant, that there were wires and a cylinder cutting into his sternum and creating a permanent _hole_ where there was supposed to be unity of bone and flesh…

 

The Reactor glowed a brilliant blue, finally free of the subduing effect the cloth usually had on its light. It was the most terrible thing Bruce had ever looked at. It was also one of the most beautiful, the most awesome, the most intriguing, the most captivating…

 

“As much as I appreciate you appreciating me, it’s far too hot in the wrong sort of ways to be doing anything like that.”

 

Bruce immediately tore his eyes away, feeling guilty as he realized how obviously he’d been staring. He knew Tony well enough to hear the edge to the leering words. Tony didn’t want anybody to see, to look, to understand. People jokingly referred to the Arc Reactor as Tony’s heart, but seeing the tenseness of his friend’s shoulders and realizing how deliberate hiding the reactor from people’s sight was, Bruce was ready to liken it to Tony’s soul. His greatest weakness and his greatest weapon; of _course_ he wouldn’t show anybody the whole thing. Just like himself – he gave enough to keep them satisfied, to keep them from asking, and then distracted with loudness and jokes and being a general asshole. He told people the Reactor was there, let them see the faint light underneath his Tshirts. Nothing more. Never anything more.

 

Until now.

 

“Tony…” He had to say something. He had to. The oppressive nature of the air was not just heat any more.

 

“I’m surprised you never asked.” The sentence was blurted out in a way that let Bruce know Tony’s brain-to-mouth filter was out of whack. “I mean, out of everybody you could understand it the most. I always thought you’d ask.”

 

“To what? See it?”

 

A twitch in Tony’s shoulders. It could have been a shrug or it could have been a suppressed reaction of an entirely different sort. “Yeah. Find out how it works. Poke it.” A beat of silence, where Bruce was lost for words. “I poked you. I just expected the same sort of retaliation.”

 

“I just…”

 

“You weren’t curious?” There was something burning in the way Tony looked at him.

 

“I was. Of course I was.”

 

“But you never asked.” Tony’s frown deepened. “Not about JARVIS or the reactor or Butterfingers or Dum-E or U or…” Bruce just looked at him, saw the brilliant mind trying – and failing – to understand. He couldn’t give his friend a concrete answer; now that he was thinking about it, he didn’t know why he hadn’t asked, either. He’d certainly thought about it a number of times. “But you asked about the suit. Ask about the suit. All the time.”

 

“You show the suit to the world.” Bruce was sure his brain-to-mouth filter was broken, too. “You paint it red and let everybody see it and touch it and ask about it. JARVIS, the Reactor, your bots… I haven’t even heard Pepper ask. She probably does, but when you’re alone. Tony, the suit is public. This is all… I didn’t…”

 

“You live here.” Tony is frustrated, all of a sudden. “You _live_ here. Do you think I’d do that to just anybody? What the fuck else must I do to-?”

 

The billionaire fell silent. Bruce had a moment of clarification. Tony didn’t want anybody to really know or see or touch. But he kind of did. Because Pepper was brilliant and wonderful and loving and kind and smart but not in that sort of way. And everything Tony kept secret was because he needed it protected in order to survive but a masterpiece painted in your own blood and sweat and tears and then covered up and hidden behind some painting you’d bought at a thrift store…

 

Tony didn’t want people to get close to him. (Bruce had picked up that the last time that had ended badly. He hadn’t wanted to ask. He knew he’d get angry when he heard). Tony didn’t want. Tony kept them out. Tony did want. Tony had let him in.

 

And Bruce, of all people, could understand those paradoxes.

 

He suddenly understood exactly what he was doing there, even though he was putting so many people’s lives at risk. Tony Stark.

 

“So… if I ask, you’ll tell me?”

 

For a split second – shorter than that – fear crossed his friend’s face. Then Tony looked at him and gave him a crooked grin. “You’ve been here long enough. I may as well show you mine.”

 

Ignoring the innuendo, Bruce thought of the possibility of seeing what that terrible, beautiful glorious monster really looked like in its entirety and he smiled. He was sure Tony could see the excitement there.

 

“How many spares have you got?” It was the first time he’d thought to ask the question that had plagued too many worries.

 

“Five,” Tony replied after a short pause. “Well, four and a half.”

 

“They’re not all here?”

 

A snort. “Of course not.”

 

“But one is.” It was a statement; he’d been told he could play Science Experiment on it and nothing was going to deter him now. He’d finally understand.

 

“Two are. Plus the working model, of course.”

 

“So… How… exactly…?” Where did he even _begin_?

 

Tony groaned. “It’s too hot to explain. See for yourself.”

 

And suddenly Bruce was staring at the Arc Reactor in its full glory. And he didn’t take in a single millimeter of its appearance. Because Tony had just pulled it _out of his effing chest_.

 

Bruce sat up ramrod straight in an instant, eyes wide, heart hammering and _shit shit shit shit shit_. “Are you _insane_?” He couldn’t get the words out; there were too many he wanted to hurl at the billionaire who now had the gaping hole in his chest where the device _keeping him alive_ should rest. “ _Put it back_.”

 

Tony, calm as ever, rolled his eyes. “Jeez, relax. I’m not going to drop dead instantly. It-”

 

“ _Tony put it back_.” And maybe there was some green around his vision. And maybe Tony noticed. Whatever the reason, the Reactor was safely clicking into place not half a minute later. And Bruce was left trying desperately to not go green.

 

“You’re such a girl,” Tony sighed at him once Bruce’s entire body had stopped shaking.

 

“Never – I will – I – Just…” He couldn’t think of the right thing to say. He flopped back down onto the floor. “Just explain verbally from now on, okay?”

 

Tony didn’t say anything. Bruce couldn’t help but glance over, unable to get the image of his friend (best friend?) without the device everybody insisted he needed. Tony looked fine. Tony seemed fine. Tony looked hot and bothered but he was also… calm.

 

“Taking it out is like a party trick.”

 

Bruce groaned out loud and rolled away so Tony wouldn’t start getting ideas about ‘let’s see how far we can push Bruce before he Hulks Out’. He was going to go grey before his next birthday, he just knew it.


End file.
